How Science & Gadgets Revolutionized the Weed Industry

Somewhere in the vast world of weed consumers, there will be someone vaping butane-extracted concentrate in a portable vape pen made from weeds grown under LED lights, and all of this was purchased online.

Technology pervades every part of the cannabis industry, from growing marijuana to making extracts, consuming concentrates, and selling and delivering all of those products. The story of how weeds became such a technology industry is what we’ll cover in this article.

The history of cannabis It goes back thousands of years, and the cannabis plant is used in recreation and medicine in China, Central Asia, and Mesopotamia. We cannot exactly know who first used cannabis for its psychotic effects, probably because someone who did so at the time was too sophisticated to bother writing about it. However, from ancient herbal medicinal books and religious practices, we can be sure that smoking cannabis dates back to ancient times for its therapeutic and recreational uses. A few thousand years later, it seems like not much has changed at first. The majority of cannabis users still put flames on herbs and use the combustion to enjoy marijuana, be it with a blunt, bong, or chillum.

But in the past decade, the cannabis world has changed a lot. Technology has introduced various ways to consume, grow, and process cannabis.

Photo credit: medium.com

Grow lights

Cannabis is an indigenous plant that grows naturally and is abundant in tropical latitudes and equatorial regions from Colombia to Southeast Asia through Lebanon, Afghanistan, India and other such areas that are ideal climates for growing cannabis outdoors.

However, many places do not enjoy those long hours of daily sunshine and warm weather. To restore that mild climate in Northern Europe or North America, growers focused on moving indoors. This move inwards also helped to hide what was still illegal business in many places at the time. In order to bring the much-needed light for indoor cultivation, producers turned to electric lamps. This allowed cannabis to be grown in everything from basements and summer houses to warehouses. Fifteen years ago you would have had to go to a specialty store to find the bulbs you need for an indoor grow. The most common options were high pressure sodium (HSP) and metal halide (MH) bulbs. While these are still used by some today due to their proven effectiveness, the game has moved on. Their dominance in the cannabis growing industry has been replaced by lamps with a series of light emitting diodes (LEDs).

The high-intensity MH and HPS lamps were increasingly being replaced by cheaper, more durable and more economical LED clusters. About ten years ago the growing culture was full of articles about the future of LED lights and whether they would be better able to provide the layers of light to encourage plant growth, etc. As LED lights continued to develop, they soon won over most of the critics and dominated the market share.

The rise of the vaporizer

The word “vape” may have been around since the 1980s, but it didn’t get into most people’s lexicon until an early stage, becoming the Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year in 2014, likely due to the growing surge in e-cigs for was vaping.

Vaping in the cannabis world was around earlier, however, when a desktop vaporizer prototype developed by Frank William Wood, AKA Eagle Bill, was shown at the 1994 annual Cannabis Cup held in Amsterdam that year.

Cannabis vapes Use a convection or conduction method to heat the dry herb to 120 to 200 ° C. It essentially cooks the active THC and CBD compounds from the plant into a vapor form which is then inhaled. This is seen as a healthier alternative to burning due to the lack of carcinogens and other compounds created when burning cannabis.

One of the most popular desktop vapes is the volcano. This classic vaporizer first appeared around the year 2000 and is the main feature in many Amsterdam cafes or weed cafes. The over 20 year history of this vape makes it an absolute classic with a cult following, which ensures Storz & Bickel a place in the history of vaporizers. Since then, a number of vaporizers have appeared, many of which are more portable, similar to the popular e-cigarette pens for nicotine vaporizers.

Vapes No longer just for dry herbs, but also for concentrate sticks for cannabis oil, waxes and other cannabis concentrates. Other vaporizers have tried to make the swab device portable and electronic. These electric swabs are some of the most popular vaping devices in recent times. They combine the cold water filtered hits you get from dabbing a water pipe, but eliminate the cumbersome oil rigs and butane heating torches, making traditional dabbing suitable only for home use.

Development of concentrates

Perhaps the most famous cannabis concentrate is hashish. It is made by collecting the trichomes that surround the buds of the cannabis plant. These are mashed together and make a sticky resin gum. It has been made for centuries and is popular across India and Afghanistan. Hashish is also common in North Africa, although this is generally a lighter color and is done a little differently. However, both are essentially the same.

Technological advancement now has a new set of Cannabis concentrates available through new extraction techniques using solvents.

Unlike solvent-free concentrates like hashish and kief, these newer substances are extracted with a solvent like butane, propane, or carbon dioxide.

As you will likely remember from your chemistry class, a solvent is a liquid that dissolves a solid and creates a liquid solution.

These new products have names like sprinkles, wax, splinters, buds and many more. Their names are often reflected in the color and consistency of the extract.

While some of these could be made at home, it can be a bit dangerous, especially when using butane or propane. Therefore, these concentrates are manufactured under laboratory-like conditions, often using huge and expensive machines.

Concentrates are many times more effective than cannabis, and the increasing legalization of recreational cannabis is helping to fuel this market in the US and Canada.

buy online

Everything seems to be available online these days, and medications are no exception. While it used to be possible to buy illegally through dark websites like the Silk Road, in the world of legalized cannabis we now live in, it is not necessary.

So you no longer have to hang around in the street waiting for the dealer to show you when you can get them to your door with your favorite herb or concentrate with just a few clicks of the mouse.

It is still illegal to send cannabis and cannabis products through the postal system in the US, but there are many delivery services in states that have legalized cannabis use. As legalization increases, so too do the options for home delivery of weeds.

Do you want to grow your own weeds? They can be in many places now and you do not have to leave home to do this. Everything you need, from seeds, soil, light to rolls of paper, is available online.

There are dozen of them online Head shopsEveryone is vying for a piece of the growing cannabis market. Vapes, bongs and all kinds of paraphernalia are available online with discreet shipping. These online head shops can have a wide variety of inventory and cater to the masses as they do not require space for their range of products. This can often result in larger savings being passed on to the customer.

The cannabis business has embraced and used the technology.